Friday 26 August 2016

Prescott Bike Festival 2016

It's been a few years since I've attended the Prescott Bike festival and on returning to the beautiful location of Prescott I remembered what a great place the paddock is to sketch in. 

1969 Smith Honda CR750 Racing Type

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The Grief Kriedler 50cc Racer

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This particular machine was bought by father and son team Zac and Sam Grief in 2013. They were building a Kawasaki AR50 after seeing a 50cc racer at the Telford show earlier in the year but when this complete Kreidler came up for sale, they changed their plans. The Kreidler was one of the 50cc racers of choice in the 1970s due to the success of the Kreidler and Van Veen factory racers. The Kreidler, although in poor shape, was a great basis for their racer. This became their summer project and entered its first race at Darley Moor in September. Sam was only 14 at the time and worked hard to ride a bike that was unfortunately plagued with problems throughout the meeting. So that winter was spent making lots of modifications, ready to compete in 2014. A 9bhp but reliable engine earned them third place in the championship that year and several wins including the local circuit of Darley Moor, the scene of the previous year’s problematic first race, so a great moment for the father son team. 

More work that winter on the engine yielded 13bhp from the little air-cooled piston port 50cc machine, with a 20bhp liquid cooled disc valve engine also in build. The winter’s work paid off and 2015 continued to be good for the Griefs as they won all 22 races they finished, with two falls and one machine failure. Lap records were taken at all four circuits they raced at and even won in the 250cc class outright at Tonfanau, showing power to weight really matters.

Anables Atom, Monowheel


(ink sketch)

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